Job losses overseas can be slowed, but not stopped, Edwards says
jsonline.com
Candidate acknowledges difficulty in dealing with issue of work erosion
By STEVE SCHULTZE
sschultze@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Feb. 12, 2004
The best that can be hoped for is a slowing - not a complete stop - of U.S. companies transferring jobs overseas, Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) said Thursday.
Edwards, whose presidential campaign message relies heavily on saving jobs, acknowledged during a meeting with Journal Sentinel editorial writers, editors and reporters that America could only stall the steady pace of job erosion.
"We can slow it, we can't stop it," Edwards said, quoting Intel Corp. CEO Andy Grove, whose advice he sought two months ago. Edwards said investing in educating more high-tech workers, replacing lost jobs with new work and scaling back tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas were ways to help reverse the rapid decline in factory work.
"I've been asked at a lot of events here in Wisconsin, 'Do you believe we are going to get back all the manufacturing jobs that we've lost?' " Edwards said. "Of course not. I mean, that's not the truth, and we shouldn't tell people that."
In his campaign appearances, Edwards, 50, dishes up a much less nuanced view on international trade and jobs. In a speech in Milwaukee on Saturday, for example, Edwards spoke of the loss of some 75,000 Wisconsin manufacturing jobs over the last three years and said: "We need to fight for the jobs that we have in this country. We need to bring these jobs back."
In one of his stock stump lines, Edwards says he's coined a new term - "Hire American" - to supersede the old "Buy American" bromide. And in one of his TV ads, Edwards says, "I want to export American products, not American jobs."
In the Journal Sentinel interview, however, Edwards said: "I'm against protectionism. I think that's putting your head in the sand."
He favors doing a number of things to help slow the job loss, he said, including using U.S. diplomatic and economic might to leverage trade concessions from China and other Asian countries that have lured American jobs with lower labor and manufacturing costs.
He said if other strategies don't work, he'd call for punishing China for violating terms of its trade agreement with the U.S. by refusing to lift tariffs that are slated to expire on some Chinese products. Edwards voted in the Senate for giving China favored trade status.
U.S. losing edge, Edwards says
Edwards said the U.S. had begun to lose its edge as a technological innovator, and that must be reversed to help stem the job slide.
Some of the things he'd do include creation of a national venture capital fund to provide seed money for entrepreneurs, especially those willing to locate in places of high job loss. He also favors a 10% tax cut for manufacturers that make their products in the U.S. and would end federal tax loopholes for companies that avoid taxes by establishing shell headquarters offshore.
He said his emphasis would be on strengthening and expanding the middle class and criticized Bush's tax cuts as helping the wealthy. Edwards would reverse Bush's cuts for those earning more than $200,000 a year and raise taxes on investment income for those who earn more than $300,000.
Edwards defended his vote against the $87 billion appropriation Bush requested for rebuilding Iraq and continuing the war on terrorism - even though he voted in favor of authorizing Bush to go to war in the first place.
Since he'd been critical of Bush's conduct of the war, it would have been inconsistent for him to support the huge appropriation - the equivalent of a blank check, Edwards said.
Appeals to independents
Edwards said his views on the war in Iraq and some other issues are similar to those of the Democratic front-runner, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. But Edwards said he is a candidate who appeals more to independent voters than does either Kerry or former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
For that reason, the planned endorsement of Kerry by retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark today in Madison likely won't make much difference with voters, asserted John Kraus, an Edwards aide.
"No amount of endorsements can replace making your case directly to voters," Kraus said. "We've been here every day and will be here every day until election day." Today marks Kerry's first trip to Wisconsin in months.
Edwards meets with steelworkers from Tower Automotive today in Milwaukee before he heads to Los Angeles for an appearance tonight on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
Elizabeth Edwards, the candidate's wife, continues stumping the state today.
Edwards also appeared Thursday morning in Racine, speaking at the Bray Community Center in the central city, where he was cheered by Walden III public school students.
He acknowledged students who voiced their opposition to plans to close the Walden III middle and high schools by carrying signs that read, "Dude, Where's My School?" Edwards told them government should seek to provide a larger number of smaller schools so that schools wouldn't have to close.
Tom Kertscher of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Feb. 13, 2004. |
